At Don's private idea mill, he said most commercial cables handle skin effect very well. I confess, I don't know the real deal about how cable configuration handle skin effect. I only know that for darn sure, the cable cross section has a lot more to do with it's ultimate performance, than any artful cable design.
I will supply a short history of my audio decampment and and departure away from the mainline audio discussion.
It all centers around a bi-star, a speaker twenty five years old, plus a remarkable audio designer. The speaker, Apogee Scintilla, is Apogee's best effort designing a true full range speaker. It's prodigious bass panel is capable of flatlining through 20 dB. A vertical mid ribbon is amidst twin arching tweeter ribbons. This arrangement assures a single voice. The ribbons sag just beyond straight, allowing air to modulate ribbon excitation alone. The lack of a spring allows highs to soar beyond hearing without stress.
Hung Ho is the designer of my preamp and mono amps. He also modified my Audio Note DAC. Hung started his amp making with fabulous class A amps. When he began experimenting with class D, his strong knowledge of power supply application served us well. I am not an engineer. What significance lies in his circuit boards augmenting the ICE module can only be explained by Hung. Hung has also created a preamp that I would be happy challenging any preamp at any price. It literally is hot to the touch. I can't really explain what it does on it's own, because it is integral to powering the 76 Db 1 µ Scintillas.
One day, a dealer brought Cardas Golden Reference speaker cables, and Jenna speaker cables. On hand were Speltz speaker wires(unmodified), and some Radio Shack. Also on hand were some weird thin ribbon Al/Cu cables.
The outcome could never been more obvious
An ascending list:
5) Radio Shack: This cable was double whammed by being braided and insulated with poor quality plastic. It's report was soft. Braided cords just sound that way.
4) Cardas GDR: The infusion of static from it's copious hose insulation overcame what music was getting through.
3) Jenna: This cable had all the looks of four Radio Shack cables laid on a zigzag in and out pattern with four more. Somehow, it managed to better the Radio Shack. I surmise that just might be for the Jenna's smaller gauge per wire. This would mean much less braid softening.
2) Speltz wire. This was so far the clearest of the bunch save one. That should be enough, and would put it at the top of this short list. It's negatives included coloring of the music through congealing of the stage, and rounding off the extremes.
1) Only there was one more pair of cables left to go. It consisted 1 .003" 12 gauge all 9's copper and a thin Al ribbon, Alcoa I believe, or was it Reynolds? Putting the copper ribbon on the positive and the aluminum for the negative, upstaged all the above and by a huge margin. This cable produced firsts in clarity, dynamics, separation, and frequency extension and even-handedness.
Conclusion: With Hung Ho's gear, my breakthrough SCs (For this system purpose) and the geniuses who brought us Apogee Acoustics, Audio Note, and 47 Lab, harness a simple, if not laughable on paper, musical victory.
My system proves less is more in audio, if you want the best with ICE technology. For this topic, my cables screwy as one can assume, are by far the best there is..... in this system.
I will supply a short history of my audio decampment and and departure away from the mainline audio discussion.
It all centers around a bi-star, a speaker twenty five years old, plus a remarkable audio designer. The speaker, Apogee Scintilla, is Apogee's best effort designing a true full range speaker. It's prodigious bass panel is capable of flatlining through 20 dB. A vertical mid ribbon is amidst twin arching tweeter ribbons. This arrangement assures a single voice. The ribbons sag just beyond straight, allowing air to modulate ribbon excitation alone. The lack of a spring allows highs to soar beyond hearing without stress.
Hung Ho is the designer of my preamp and mono amps. He also modified my Audio Note DAC. Hung started his amp making with fabulous class A amps. When he began experimenting with class D, his strong knowledge of power supply application served us well. I am not an engineer. What significance lies in his circuit boards augmenting the ICE module can only be explained by Hung. Hung has also created a preamp that I would be happy challenging any preamp at any price. It literally is hot to the touch. I can't really explain what it does on it's own, because it is integral to powering the 76 Db 1 µ Scintillas.
One day, a dealer brought Cardas Golden Reference speaker cables, and Jenna speaker cables. On hand were Speltz speaker wires(unmodified), and some Radio Shack. Also on hand were some weird thin ribbon Al/Cu cables.
The outcome could never been more obvious
An ascending list:
5) Radio Shack: This cable was double whammed by being braided and insulated with poor quality plastic. It's report was soft. Braided cords just sound that way.
4) Cardas GDR: The infusion of static from it's copious hose insulation overcame what music was getting through.
3) Jenna: This cable had all the looks of four Radio Shack cables laid on a zigzag in and out pattern with four more. Somehow, it managed to better the Radio Shack. I surmise that just might be for the Jenna's smaller gauge per wire. This would mean much less braid softening.
2) Speltz wire. This was so far the clearest of the bunch save one. That should be enough, and would put it at the top of this short list. It's negatives included coloring of the music through congealing of the stage, and rounding off the extremes.
1) Only there was one more pair of cables left to go. It consisted 1 .003" 12 gauge all 9's copper and a thin Al ribbon, Alcoa I believe, or was it Reynolds? Putting the copper ribbon on the positive and the aluminum for the negative, upstaged all the above and by a huge margin. This cable produced firsts in clarity, dynamics, separation, and frequency extension and even-handedness.
Conclusion: With Hung Ho's gear, my breakthrough SCs (For this system purpose) and the geniuses who brought us Apogee Acoustics, Audio Note, and 47 Lab, harness a simple, if not laughable on paper, musical victory.
My system proves less is more in audio, if you want the best with ICE technology. For this topic, my cables screwy as one can assume, are by far the best there is..... in this system.